Lady Gryphons fall to Hendersonville

Early season fatigue paired with a missing starter and foul trouble isn’t a good combination for a basketball team. The Thomas Jefferson Lady Gryphons fell victim to that recipe Friday night in a 53-33 loss to Hendersonville at Cool Springs Gym.

“We got in foul trouble that took out one of our starters and we aren’t in top shape yet,” TJCA head coach Roy Parton said. “We’ll get there though.”

The Lady Gryphons (0-2) jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first quarter but the Bearcats stormed back to tie the game at 8-8 with three minutes left in the fame.

TJCA’s Alyssa Edwards hit a 3 with 10 seconds left in the quarter to put the Gryphons up 14-8 but Hendersonville downed two free throws to cut the lead to 14-10 heading to the second quarter.

Hendersonville scored the first four points of the second quarter and outscored TJCA 13-7 over the eight-minute span to take a 23-20 lead into the half.

“They we’re getting in the passing lanes and we didn’t know how to respond to that,” Parton said. “We need to work on breaking the press and learn to respond to that type of thing.”

The Lady Bearcats extended their lead to 35-27 at the end of the third quarter and the hole only grew for the Gryphons in the fourth.

Hendersonsville’s Meagan Roper drained a deep 3 to start the final quarter as the Bearcats out scored the Gryphons 14-6 in the frame for a 52-33 win.

Thomas Jefferson was led by Alyssa Edwards with 12 points and five rebounds while Autumn Edwards scored seven and pulled down nine rebounds.

“I was pleased with Autumn,” Parton said. “And Alyssa’s shooting was on point tonight.”

Starting guard Rachel Tevis was held in check by the Bearcats scoring just four points.

“Rachel was off tonight,” Parton said. “I think if she was on it’s a different ball game. She’s a good shooter that just didn’t have it tonight.”

Despite the loss, Parton was pleased with aspects of his team’s play.

“I really like that we were organized tonight and running our plays well,” he said. “We still had some lapses but I was pleased with how much more organized we were.”

The Lady Gryphons hit the court Wednesday, Dec. 11 to take on North Henderson for their next game back at Cool Springs.